HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 1DKREALLY.NEOCITIES.ORG, WE ARE NOW 1 YEAR OLD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i can't believe that i've managed to stick to one project for so long! i started this site during my summer holidays in 2023, having nothing to do and wanting to create my own space on the internet away from the corporatism of modern social media sites. i never thought that over 50 thousand people would take an interest in my silly little side project, and for that i thank you all!!! <333
unfortunately i haven't had the time to make any big updates to the site, and that's because i'm in ireland visiting family - as well as being a bit of a tourist, which i haven't ever really been before here...
we got here on monday, and i bought a teddy on the ferry to belfast! its a strawberry from palm pals and its name is strabby, like from bugsnax :3 that reminds me, i want to make a page on my teddy collection, but i need to figure out how to make it and how to remove metadata from my pictures... i should figure out different site layouts for these side pages, i'm pretty tired of the main content iframe + side navigation on translucent boxes with rounded corners combo, but i don't have any better ideas at the moment :( who knows, maybe i'll figure something out once i'm home lol
on tuesday we went to the giants causeway! the causeway itself was great, it was really accessible! they gave me a sensory pack with a bunch of stuff, and i saw that they offered motorised wheelchairs too :] there was also a bus to the stones themselves, though we decided to walk lol. however, my mam and i took the bus back, except it was REALLY busy and the line was REALLY long. like, two-other-buses-filled-up-before-we-could-get-on long. we did manage to get seats once we did get on the bus though, which i can't be thankful enough for as i was in agony at that point LMAOO
we also met this really nice older american couple from minneapolis, minnesota! the lady said that she loved my jacket (i have a bunch of patches + badges on it) and that she used to have one just like it!! we talked for a while, and they mentioned that they were travelling around europe for their retirement, and that they had been to scotland last year! it did take all of my willpower not to correct their mispronunciations of placenames (glass-cow instead of glaz-go for glasgow, edin-burg instead of edin-burugh for edinburgh, gAl-way instead of gall-way for galway, etc), but they were lovely to talk to :3the road up was pretty boring so we took the coastal route back down south, which was lovely! that is, until we got to belfast. the road signs for the coastal route stopped in the middle of the city, and we ended up in east belfast, which for the unaware is REALLY unionist. lots of union jacks, and even some uvf (uk domestic terrorist group) support murals. we had to stop for fuel, and i had my headphones in so i didn't hear this, but my parents were arguing about who should go in to pay because they were terrified that someone was going to like, stab them or something LOL (/in a laughs nervously what the fuck kind of way). we texted the rest of my irish family about it later, and they said that we were lucky that 1) our car had a uk license plate and 2) if the things we saw were the most extreme we had seen LMAOOO
we managed to find where we were going and continue on the coastal route, but not before going through an hours worth of decrepit unionist towns, with more union jacks and unionist slogans. it got much nicer after we reached a certain coastal town that was clearly more touristy, and while there were a couple union jacks up, at least we didn't feel actively unsafe driving through- also oops sorry for writing so much here LMAOO i have to get this finished before midnight its 23:42 go go go-
wednesday was my brother's birthday! we went around another lovely little coastal town over the border (context - all my family live really close to the roi/ni border, whether that be in the north or the south) for lunch, and we went into a sweet shop and i found bags of freeze-dried sweets! i've seen them online but never irl, i'm SO glad i don't have to pay for shipping for them. as well as that, i also found swedish fish - i've had them once and i love them, but they're generally not sold in my area :( we later went go-karting, and i got my arse kicked by my brother and one of my cousins (and nearly beat but overall still lost to the other cousin who was racing LOLLL)
one of my cousins had a sleepover at the bnb we're staying in and we went out to another touristy place near newry on thursday - slieve gullion! we did the forest drive, and only at the top of the mountain when i looked at the view did i realise that ireland is actually a really fucking flat country, as my family either live near the coast (which is often less hilly anyways) or near hills LMFAO
and that brings us to today! we went over to my aunt's house for a part 2 of my brother's birthday - all the family were over and we had nibbles and played party games :] i'm home now though, in my pajamas and trying to get this blog post out before midnight while my brother is out of our shared room and playing his xbox AJKSDJHDKJSH
cheers to one year of 1DKREALLY, here's to many more <333333